Escape to the Great White North - Day 8

Reporting on route to home, I-78 New Jersey

Well, the storm raged on last night. We attempted to go to sleep early, but all the clanging of the balcony furniture made it very difficult. Here's a pic of said furniture this morning.

The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed…

Fortunately, Mindy remembered that our travel jackets came with little ear plugs. We popped those in, and all was right with the world.

This resulted in us getting up very early--we were packed and down at the buffet by 6:30 or so. According to the disembarkation schedule, the group that was taking their own luggage off the boat (including us) would be able to do so starting around 8:15. So we decided to kill some time by walking around the decks-- not so fast! They had already blockaded the stairs on the floors that are used to disembark, which is basically where you'd want to walk. We also saw that the line was already getting pretty long--keep in mind this is still an hour and a half before we're supposed to be able to leave.

So we made our way back to the room, double checked everything, and headed out. It's a little complicated handling multiple rolling bags down narrow corridors, but we made it. We had planned to simply walk those bags down one flight of stairs, but again they were already blocked off. Over to the elevator, where we ended up having to go up to 16 (where everybody was heading for the buffet) and then back down to 7.

So we worked our way over to the back of the line where there were probably 100 or more people already there, with their many bags.  At that point, we started to check our phones, since we now had access again. But less than 10 minutes later, the line was moving and within 10 minutes we were off the boat. This was still 45 minutes or so earlier than we thought. The customs process was perfunctory at best--just a facial recognition screen and off you go.  We managed to find our way to the elevators to get to the parking deck--perhaps the cruise industry could invest in this newfangled technology called signage.

By 8:00, New York City was in our rear view mirror, and we were on our way. The trip across NJ and PA was uneventful, except for a family issue that forced us to be less leisurely.

I got your fall foliage RIGHT HERE!

And that's about it. We REALLY enjoyed the cruise. The service was exemplary, the food delicious, the ports of call very interesting--and we got some time without the internet.  I even read a book (on my phone, but baby steps).  There's things I want to change about my everyday life going forward, and we WILL cruise again—even considering the bout of COVID we experienced afterward (we’re much better now, thank you).

#escapetothegreatwhitenorth

Escape to the Great White North - Day 7

Reporting from LAT 42.10, LON 67.35--The North Atlantic

We woke up pretty early--somehow skipping the "nightcap" paradoxically resulted in better sleep?  Back to the buffet...

They had a “yogurt bar”, where you could add all sorts of stuff.

Take it easy on that Cool Whip, Uncle Harry! (a reference no one under 55 will get).

Wandering back to the room for a shower, we stopped to get Mindy her "flattened penny". These are the old timey machines where normally you put in two quarters and a penny, and then turn a crank which embosses and design on a now oblong penny. You generally see them in touristy areas today. In this case, you tapped your room ID on it and then cranked. While it accepted her card, no amount of furious cranking generated a penny. So we had to get a technician to come over, who just handed her a penny in the design she wanted.

After a shower, we thought we'd sit out on the balcony but it was very windy out there. Not at all restful. So we went out on the waterfront where things were quite a bit calmer and found some chairs.

After a while, we heard an announcement from the captain that we're rolling into a storm and a gale warning this afternoon. So I doubt we'll be outside after lunch. We're actually okay with that--we've had wonderful weather almost the entire trip (warmer than anticipated), and if you're going to have bad weather, you want it the day you're at sea.

Lunch at Savor/Taste. We had salads--I had taquitos, while Mindy had her favorite, the Monte Cristo sammich. We also had some drinks—I got an Old Fashioned, while Mindy had a glass of wine. The drink package was included, and darn it, we were going to use it!

A view of Savor and/or Taste.

On the way back to our room, we saw packets of sickness bags by the stairs--they clearly think something is coming.

The ship is swaying a bit, but it's nothing like our first cruise, where you could see the horizon going up and down out the window. It's more like being rocked to sleep. The bigger issue is the wind--the dividers on our balcony are shaking like a leaf, and there's a hissing coming from the balcony door, due to pressure differences.

We spent some time packing--as always, we brought way too much stuff. You can choose to leave most of your bags in the hallway the night before disembarking, and they'll whisk them away to a collection area at the dock, but we think it would be far faster if we just roll them out ourselves (famous last words).

Things were still rocking and rolling, so we holed up in our room for awhile, watching random stuff on TV--an episode of Scrubs, Firefly, and a Frank Capra documentary.

Time for dinner, back to Savor/Taste.  Mindy had cheese soup and stuffed pepper, while I had scallops and shrimp fettuccine alfredo--plus dessert.

Onto a stage show--"The Choir of Men"--or at least we thought we were going to see that show. Bad weather and the shaking of the ship canceled it, so they replaced it with I guy who does a comedy juggling act (although I'm not actually sure I'd want to be a juggler when the ship is swaying back and forth). We had actually thought about seeing the juggler earlier in the week but were too tired that night. So it's good news/bad news. The juggler was good, if a little blue for an early show (not that we minded).

We finished off the evening with our first mojito.

I would drink this again.

That'll do it for the final full day of the cruise. Tomorrow--disembarkation and a long drive.

#escapetothegreatwhitenorth

Escape to the Great White North - Day 6

Got up early so I could take some unimpeded video of the ship (which will be posted as an episode of “From the Pop Culture Bunker”).

Then we got dressed and went down for a smaller breakfast at the buffet, taking some pastries back with us and sat on the balcony. The ship doesn't dock at Halifax until mid morning. It is remarkably warm here--thanks climate change!  Early predictions had it in the high 40s at Halifax, and now it's saying more like 60.

It's absolutely gorgeous this morning--just some wispy clouds.

Around 10:30 or so, the cruisers were allowed to disembark, most of them scurrying to tours, but we just decided to walk around and have lunch.

Alongside us with a ship from the Silversea line, a fancy-schmancy vessel.

While Halifax is definitely an industrial town, the boardwalk area is just fantastic.  It stretches for a mile or two, going past shops, restaurants, museums, and other businesses. 

Since Nova Scotia translates to "New Scotland", there's a number of businesses that sell tartans and kilts.  In the middle was an area called the Salt Yard, where there were various shacks and buildings selling food. We read about it on the Facebook group page.  We always endeavor to get food that we can't get at home, so we had the following:

• Poutine, Canada's national food (apart from Tim Hortons donuts I guess).  French fries, cheese curds, gravy, and maybe meat if you'd like. Basically a lot of carbs and quite delicious.

• A "Beaver Tail", similar in concept to an elephant ear except it has whole wheat pastry, with various stuff added to it. We had the Avalanche, which involved a cream and bits of Skor candy on it.  Messy but very good.

• Finally, from a host of ice cream places we could have picked from, The Fog Company. They start with an ice cream cone, then dump all sorts of stuff on it both savory and sweet-- then add cotton candy in a ring at the top of the cone itself. The various add-ons end up getting snagged in that cotton candy ring. You almost need a shower after eating this, but wow!

During our time in Halifax, we kept seeing this bizarre cargo ship that we were convinced was run by Google. It turned out to be a n unrelated company that ship huge industrial equipment.

Note the logo.

After walking up and down the boardwalk, and checking out some of the stores, we made it back to the ship before our sugar crash kicked in.  Time for a nap before dinner!

This was our second of two specialty restaurants which were included in our cruise package. We went to La Cucina, a fancy Italian spot. We stuck to our rule of eating stuff we normally wouldn't--I had calamari with a red snapper entree, which included clams and mussels. Mindy had antipasto and ravioli with beef tenderloin. It was all wonderful.

A walk around the deck later, ,we got the "sustainable cocktail of the day--a Bananaruma, which sounds promising but (at least to me) fell into the "cough syrup" category.

Au revoir, Canada.

We sailed out into the foggy night. We're told the wind is really going to pick up and it appears to be doing so already. 

Louie, I think think this could be the start of a beautiful friendship.

Tomorrow--a rough day at sea on our way back to the states...

#escapetothegreatwhitenorth